As a result of deregulation in the telecommunication industry, many cable television providers are developing systems which will enable them to provide telephone and internet services, in addition to traditional cable television services, over the same coaxial cable. However, these new cable systems will require coaxial connectors which have significantly better performance characteristics than the connectors which are presently used in cable systems which only pass video signals.
Coaxial connectors which are presently used in the cable television industry are sometimes referred to as "F" connectors. These coaxial connectors were designed to be able to pass video signals at a relatively low cost. The male coaxial connectors which are commercially available typically have either crimped or soldered center wire pins or use the center conductor or wire of the coaxial cable as the center contact. The commercially available female coaxial connectors, sometimes referred to as "ports", typically use a variety of screw-machined or stamped contacts.
Since they were designed to only handle video signals, the coaxial connectors presently used in the cable television industry have poor electrical performance. Specifically, current coaxial connectors have unacceptably high signal loss, at the significantly higher bandwidth requirements, e.g. data transmissions speeds of up to 1 GHZ, that will be associated with the new cable systems which will transmit video, voice and data signals. Accordingly, new coaxial connectors will have to be provided for these new cable systems which can mate with existing coaxial cables and also provide reliable long-term connections and superior electrical performance even at broadband frequencies.